Friday, February 26, 2010

I just recently downloaded Celtic Thunder’s new album, “It’s Entertainment!” To my amazement, one of the songs they perform on this new album is, “Hallelujah!” (And Keith Harkin is still a hottie!) This is my 3rd post that the song “Hallelujah” has been featured on (the first post from 10/10/06 and the second post from 5/23/08.) This song has always had a special place in my heart. Certainly it speaks to the darkness, the sorrow, and the tragedy that reside there and the hope and faith of overcoming it, but it’s more than just that. It speaks to all that I have been blessed with as well.

One of the things that has always fascinated me about the story of King David was how tragically flawed his character and thus many of his actions were. David was God’s anointed - God’s favored one – yet David commits horrible sins against God in sleeping with another man’s wife, and then essentially having that other man killed. Although David suffers greatly for his sins, God doesn’t lose favor with David – he remains king, and his bloodline will eventually include the Christ. I find it very comforting that no matter how much of a disappointment we may be, God still loves us for who we are – imperfect beings.

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40)

Though I certainly don’t deserve it, and I am fully aware that I’m not as grateful as I should be for it, but God has truly blessed me with a very rewarding life, more so than most in this world. My greatest, reoccurring sin and flaw is that I don’t place God above all things in my life – I’m too concerned and caught up in my own affairs. And though I do try to change this each morning as I start the day, the monotony of daily life brings me back to being too focused on me, and only in hindsight as I reflect on my day before I go to bed do I realize that I’ve failed miserably once again. Nonetheless, God continues to bless me each and every day.

I certainly have trouble with the second part of Christ’s commandment too, much for the same reason – I’m too focused on my own life. I don’t let the people I love the most know how I feel nearly as much as I should because I don’t think to do it – I’m too busy – too busy with me.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

I try to remember this prayer each day, but it somehow manages to get lost through day – and again only in hindsight at the end of the day to I realize that it escaped me. And still even though I definitely am not worthy of it, God continues to bless me each and every day.

So yes, there is one word I always have when I feel scared, feel despondent, feel fantastic, feel wonderful, feel things are too good to be true, feel things can’t get any worse, feel ashamed, feel like a failure, or feel broken – “Hallelujah!”

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Roger Ebert posted an interesting link via Twitter just a few minutes ago. He posted a link to WorldMeters, which is essentially a site that has real time statics of all kinds of things world-wide. This is so fascinating. I’m completely mesmerized. All of the statics are mind-blowing, but my attention is principally focused on the population statics at the moment. I find it absolutely incredible that there have already been nearly 22 million births world-wide year-to-date (and it’s still only February!) That’s nearly the population of the state of Texas! I can’t stop staring at this! Mind-boggling!

So I just read that Marvel Comics is searching for a young, hot actor to play the classic hero, Captain America. Marvel released their “wish list” to the press on the “young, hot” actors they are considering for the role.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Here's an interesting Glee story by way of Cory Monteith on Twitter... an excerpt from an article today by writer Michael Ausiello...

Being the president’s wife apparently has its perks.

Sources confirm to me exclusively that First Lady Michelle Obama has invited the cast of "Glee" to perform at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 5 — and, barring any last-minute glitches, they’re gonna do it!

Rumor has it Mrs. O and her daughters are big fans of the show. And since a White House gig is an offer that’s pretty darn hard to refuse, Glee’s producers did some lickety-split schedule rejiggering in order to honor the request.

All in all, not a bad stretch for the Glee club: Glee The Music Volume 1 just debuted at No. 1 on the UK album charts.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Monday, February 15, 2010

Very exciting! I just noted (tweeted) via Twitter about 15 minutes ago that Levar Burton and I share the same birthday, Feb 16... just minutes later, Levar Burton sent me a direct message wishing me a Happy Birthday! I'm totally star-struck right now!!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Several weeks ago, Jimmy discovered a new tv series… “Glee.” He watched it on hulu.com, as we don’t have cable or satellite tv, and he was hooked instantly. He insisted that I needed to watch it, but I pushed back and absolutely refused. I didn’t want to start watching another new tv show just to become addicted to it too. Not having cable already makes it hard enough to keep up with the shows I’m already hooked on (i.e. Dexter, House, Heroes, 30 Rock, Family Guy, Real Time with Bill Maher, Smallville, Lost, etc…) So I certainly didn’t want to add yet one more show that would be difficult to keep up with regularly. It’s really hard to wait for an entire season to end and finally get on DVD before watching a single episode for that season.

While Jimmy was away this week at his Texas Music Educators Association meeting in San Antonio, I was bored and finally relented. I was instantly captivated just after the first episode. This show is amazing! Each episode is written so well – while each episode has quite a bit of comedy, they’re each extremely moving too. The music is fantastic – so incredibly diverse. Each character is absolutely brilliant!

It’s hard to say which my favorite character is, because I love them all so much… but if I had to pick just one, I’d think I’d go with Jane Lynch’s character of Sue Sylvester! She’s just sooooo bad and over-the top… constantly has me cracking up! She continuously has me laughing out loud over her quick-witted comments, her sincere disgust with decency, and her ruthless nature!

My next favorite character would probably by Cory Monteith’s character of Finn Hudson. In addition to be a bona fide cutie, he’s an awesome singer who’s into classic rock (my favorite.) While his character isn’t very intelligent, he makes up for it being truly genuine and sweet! Some of my favorite songs that he performs include: REO Speedwagon’s “I Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore” ; Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” ; Queen’s “Somebody to Love” ; The Pretender’s “I’ll Stand By You” ; The Rolling Stone’s “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”

Chris Colfer’s character of Kurt Hummel is very endearing to me. Both Kurt and his father have known that Kurt was gay since he was very young, and although he and his father don't have much in common, they have a close relationship and each is willing to sacrifice for the other. He does an amazing job singing my favorite song Wicked which is really high, especially for a guy to sing – “Defying Gravity.”

Mark Salling’s bad-boy character of Noah “Puck” Puckerman is fun to watch. Yes, he is very sexy – especially when he has his shirt off! Though he doesn’t have very many solos in the show, he does an awesome job singing Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”

One of the most amazing voices in the show comes from Lea Michele’s character of Rachel Berry. Although she is very awkward, self centered, and a total outcast, she is incredibly talented, and she knows it too! Some of my favorite songs that she performs includes: Celine Dion’s “Taking Chances” & Diana Ross’s “Endless Love”

Another remarkable voice comes from Amber Riley’s Mercedes Jones. She has such a fun character – such a diva! She has a hot temper and a voice to match! She belt’s out Dreamgirls’ “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” so unbelievably well that you’ll find yourself saying “Jennifer Hudson who?”

Sure I could go on and on about the rest of the cast because they are amazing too, but I’ll save that for another time. If you haven’t seen this show, I can assure you that it is awesome and I highly recommend it! I’m sure it’ll become one of your favorites (if it’s not already!)

It was Johnny Weir's skating ability (or was it because he is f-ing hot… can’t remember) that first drew my attention to him back in 2006 during that year’s Winter Olympics. I also certainly enjoy his personality - he says whatever is on his mind, regardless of how controversial or quirky it might be!

Here’s a snippet of a recent interview (and he’s still pretty f-ing hot!)

"I know that for the men's population of the Unites States, figure skating is a 'gay' sport and that's a misconception. There are so many straight athletes in figure skating. But I think it's the music and the costumes that turn most men off. Because they want to see, well, they want to see spandex-ed men hitting each others' ass and throwing a ball. It's very different."

Saturday, February 06, 2010

That new Dune director sure gets around! Last week in an interview, Pierre Morel told how he loved the novel as a teenager, read it at least 10 times and intended his film to be faithful to the book. But now he's spilling even more details about his plans—and those plans could include 3-D!

In an interview with IGN, Pierre Morel talked about how he was intimidated by the project, and that he had to "erase the image that David Lynch did" in order to proceed. But he also said that—

"I'd love it to be 3-D, of course. It's the kind of movie that has the scope to be 3-D. Will they do it in 3-D? I'd push for that, but I don't know. As a viewer, I've just been watching Avatar with my kids twice in the theater already and had a blast. It's an amazing experience."

Similar to the last "literal" music video that I posted from YouTube on Billy Jean, here's another one that's pretty funny too! This would be the "literal" video to Meat Loaf's "Anything For Love." (I think the Billy Jean one was a bit more humorous, but this one is still funny nonetheless!)

Monday, February 01, 2010

"On Friday President Obama appeared before House Republicans in a historic televised Q & A and performed so well,after wards GOP Aids said that allowing cameras to roll like that was a mistake. Come on Republicans,are you on such a Scott Brown high you thought you could take down Barack Obama by debating him? You realize debates are why he is President, right? Seriously, all you do is complain how Obama is all talk and then you invite him to a forum that is literally all talk. That's like saying lets see how tough Aquaman is once we get him in the water. I'm not saying you were out classed but the whole thing was like the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the guy charged at Indiana Jones with the sword and he just shot him."